Darshan, Grace of the Guru, Part Four
Author: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Description: From "Guru Chronicles" Gurudeva's personal story, at 21 years of age, in Sri Lanka, struggling at first yet fulfilling a mission given by an enlightened catalyst, Dayananda, exercising willpower and fortitude over a year and a half to perform what seemed like an impossible task. Sadhana given by a guru tests loyalty, consistency and resolution. The aspirant gains help only from inside himself. Being one with his guru prepares the aspirant to receive his grace. Satguru darshan opens psychic seals in the devotee, the seeker opens himself to the great accumulated power of darshan which has been inherited from guru to guru. The aspirant must be loyal to that one guru only.
Transcription:
Good morning everyone. We are finishing up Merging with Siva, Chapter 44 titled "Darshan, Grace of the Guru" from "The 1972 Master Course".
Thought I would start with a story from "Guru Chronicles".
"I was happy (So I is Gurudeva) I was happy and awed to meet my fourth catalyst on the island of Sri Lanka, a Buddhist. He was a strong, active Sinhalese man dedicated to spiritual awakening and bringing this through in a vitally helpful way to all of humanity. He had been high in Ceylonese government and was practical and forceful as a teacher. I studied with him for one year and a half.
"In earlier years, Dayananda attained enlightenment in a cave in Thailand by sitting in the morning, eyes focused upon the sun, following its travel across the sky all day long until it set at night. He practiced under his guru this most difficult sadhana. Then one night while meditating in a cave, the cave turned to brilliant light, and a great being appeared to him, giving him his mission and instructions for his service to the world.
"My fourth catalyst taught me how to use the willpower, how to get things done in the material world. He was a real father to me. I needed this at twenty-one years of age. I wanted to meditate, but he wanted me to work to help the village people in reconstructing the rural areas.He assigned me to do different duties, sometimes several at a time, which I had to work out from within myself. One was seeing that a new village bridge was put up that had been washed out in a flood, bringing into another village modern saws and carpentry equipment to replace traditional tools used in building furniture.
"I had to take a survey of all the carpenters using handsaws on the west coast of Sri Lanka. I went around with a notebook and listed all their names and addresses and the types of saws they were using, for my assignment was to see that they all would eventually be provided with electric saws. Getting modern equipment into the Moratuwa area was one of the biggest assignments I had ever had, and I had no idea how to begin, for I had never done anything of this nature in my life. Occasionally my catalyst would ask, “Well, have they gotten their saws yet?” All I could say was, “Well, I’m working on it.”
"Executing governmental changes was strange to me. My life had been quiet, with no exposure to methods of business. But even worse, I was in a foreign country that had different customs, subtle ways of
relating and suggesting. Most of the educated could speak English beautifully. In the villages, however, only the native languages, Sinhalese and Tamil, were spoken and understood. The craftsmen were accustomed to the old ways, their fathers’ ways, of making furniture and were not easily persuaded that electric saws would improve their work. Some had grown up in remote regions where there was no electricity, no running water. So naturally they resisted such a massive change. They made good, sturdy furniture already. Why complicate life further, they must have thought.
(Next sentence, can't help but laugh.)
"My natural shyness was the biggest barrier... (Hard to imagine Gurudeva being shy, huh?) My natural shyness was the biggest barrier, though. I had to interview people, do research and convince people of the practicality of electric equipment. Finally, it unfolded to me from the inside how to go about it. I drew up an elaborate proposal, long and wordy, with myriad details, diagrams, names and addresses. I gave it to him. He was pleased and said, 'Now what I want you to do is take this fine proposal to the head of the Department of Rural Reconstruction. You give it to him, and I will do the rest. But while you are in his office, sit down with him and tell him how fast work is done in your country by using modern equipment to make furniture.'
"I was happy. At last I had something definite to do that would bring this project to a successful end. I went into Colombo to the Office of Rural Reconstruction and presented the proposal. The government
was convinced, and not many months later the modern electric saw became available and popular in the Moratuwa villages for any carpenter who needed one. Sri Lanka had just this year received its independent dominion status from the Crown, and there was a lot to do to bring the rural areas up to better standards. I did my part in the best way I knew how and was glad to do it.
(So this next part is more general and ties into the previous lesson on fulfilling assignments given by the Guru.)
"One assignment like this after another was given to me. This fourth catalyst of mine worked on the philosophy that you do what you’re told. If you are given an assignment, do it to perfection. Finish
it. And don’t come back with excuses. If he sent you on a mission, you wouldn’t dare return until you had completed that mission, not to your satisfaction but to his. He might have nothing more to do with
you if you failed. I knew that, so I was very, very careful. Inside myself, as I struggled to do tasks that seemed impossible, I could hear him saying, 'Don’t fail, don’t fall short. You create the obstacles. You can overcome anything, do anything, be anything.' He challenged me to work problems out from within myself, offering little advice and often assigning a task and then just leaving."
So imagine having Dayananda as your catalyst, huh? Very challenging teacher.
Back to our lesson.
Lesson 307, continued:
"Relationship With a Guru
"Still a certain darshan power goes out to him, but the guru no longer consciously inwardly works with him as an individual. (This is someone who didn't do their assignments.) He knows it is too dangerous to work with this fluctuating aspirant, for there is no telling how he might take and use the accumulating power that would later be awakened within him. The satguru makes such a one prove himself to himself time and time again and to the guru, too, through sadhana and tapas. Sadhana tests his loyalty, consistency and resolution. Tapas tests his loyalty as well as his personal will, for he does tapas alone, gaining help only from inside himself, and he has to be aware on the inside to receive it.
"A wise guru never hesitates to 'put him through it,' so to speak. A guru of India may give tapas to a self-willed disciple who insisted on living his personal life in the ashrama, not heeding the rules of his sadhana. He may say, 'Walk through all of India. Stay out of my ashrama for one year. Walk through the Himalayas. Take nothing but your good looks, your orange robe and a bowl for begging at the temples.' From then on, the guru works it all out with him on the inside for as long as the disciple remains “on tapas.” Maybe the guru will be with him again, yet maybe not; it depends
entirely on the personal performance of the tapas.
"This, then, is one of the reasons that it is very, very important for anyone striving on the path to first have a good relationship with his family—for the guru can expect nothing more than the same type of relationship eventually to arise with himself, or between the aspirant and some other disciple. As he gets more into the vibration of the guru, he is going to relax into the same behavioral patterns he generated with his parents, for in the ashrama, many of the same vibrations, forces and attitudes are involved."
Lesson 308
"The Devotee's Responsibilities
"The aspirant may go to his guru and be one with him by preparing himself to receive his grace. As a result, he may be able to meditate, to keep his personal karma subdued sufficiently to quiet the inner forces. Once a guru has been chosen, the aspirant must be loyal to him and stay with that one guru only. He should not go from one to another, because of these subtle, powerful inner, connecting vibrations of darshan and the training received through the power of a satguru’s use of darshan. These inner, mystical laws protect the guru himself against people who wander from one guru to another, as well as warn the seeker against the fluctuating forces of his own mind as he creates and breaks the subtle yet powerful relationship with a holy person.
"Satguru darshan opens psychic seals in the devotee by moving his awareness out of an area that he does not want to be in. Similarly, a blowtorch changes the consistency of metal. The satguru
is like the sun. He is just there, radiating this very pure energy like the sun evaporates water. The satguru hardly does anything at all. It is the seeker who opens himself to the great accumulated power of darshan which the guru inherited from his guru and his guru’s guru, as well as the natural darshan he unfolded from within himself through his evolution and practices of sadhana and tapas. It’s all up to the aspirant at first.
"A satguru doesn’t do a thing. The guru can amuse himself externally with anything. It does not make any difference in his darshan when he is at a certain point in his unfoldment. If you are around him long enough, and if you are honest with yourself and persistent in the tasks he asks you to perform and directions he gives you, psychic seals lift after awhile. But you have to do your part. He does his in an inner way, and as he does, you will feel the psychic seals melt away under his fiery darshan, just like a blowtorch penetrates and transforms the metal it touches."
Useful knowledge. Have a wonderful day.
[End of transcript]